Clarifying the Creative Cloud

There’s been some buzz from our customers, both good and…concerned regarding Adobe’s new Creative Cloud approach for the licensing and distribution of their extensive range of software. After some discussion with those ‘in the know’, we’ll help clarify what we can…

One point of confusion is whether the ‘Touch Apps’ are included with a Cloud subscription or not. While they were intended to be, the apps themselves are not actually included at this time.
If you purchase the apps, say through the Apple Store, you can tie them to your Creative Cloud account…but the software itself must be purchased separately.

Here’s the ‘official’ response:

Q: Are Touch Apps included in the annual Creative Cloud Membership?

A: Our intention is to have Touch Apps included in the annual membership. However we use iOS App Store and Google Play to deliver this software and unfortunately the infrastructures of the app marketplaces were not built to deliver subscription-based software suites that work across desktop, tablet and mobile devices. This is not that surprising, given that Adobe is doing something unique with Creative Cloud.

The Touch Apps integrate seamlessly with all aspects of Creative Cloud but for now they must be purchased separately through app marketplaces. Our goal is to work with the app marketplaces to enable Touch Apps to be purchased separately, or as part of Creative Cloud Membership, over time.  Until that time, Adobe Creative Cloud members on the annual plan will receive a free month of membership, a $49.99 value, with the purchase of three qualifying Adobe Touch Apps -- about a $30 value.

Q: How do users access and buy Touch Apps?

A: Users buy Adobe Touch Apps on iOS App Store or Google Play marketplaces. Once purchased, users can utilize file management and sharing capabilities in Adobe Creative Cloud for connectivity between their Touch Apps and CS6 desktop applications.

 

Another common question is what exactly is included in the Create Cloud subscription. Here too are some official and related responses:

 

Q. What is and is not included with Creative Cloud?

http://www.adobe.com/products/creativecloud.html

https://creative.adobe.com/plans

Q. What is going to be included in the future?

http://www.adobe.com/products/creativecloud.html

(See: “Coming soon to creative cloud”)

We hope that helps settle some questions! We here at ICS Learning Group will continue to use Adobe products as they remain useful to our custom courseware development business, which we suspect will be for quite a while, as well as continuing to use and integrate additional tools as well (i.e. watch for our upcoming Storyline review).

Flash Stage 3D/Molehill in Action

While it may be focusing on alternative tools for mobile delivery, Adobe continues to demonstrate its commitment to the Flash platform – most recently with the continued refinement Flash ‘Stage 3D’API (which we’ve discussed before). Also as we’ve discussed, it is possible to develop with Flash and publish to an AIR-based ‘App’ which will work on both iOS and Android devices…and this remains true with the Stage 3D feature.

Stage 3D forklift sim

Now, how well a Flash-based Stage 3D app will run on a mobile device, which tend to be less-powerful (CPU/RAM) than desktops and laptops, well, that’s on our R&D list to determine.

On the way there, however, we’ve developed a fun ‘proof of concept’ piece demonstrating how to work a forklift in a virtual warehouse. Check out this pretty cool, Flash 3D-based, demonstration!

While it’ll work with older, lower-end machines, you must at least have a recent version of Flash Player 11 installed with your preferred browser. And to really get the full 3D effect, you should have a relatively recent video card (the demo will alert you if your video card is not supported). But even with an older machine, you can still play the game and get a good sense of where eLearning can go.

Plans are to take this a bit further, making it perhaps more of a game with various goals, scores, rewards, and perhaps a bit of humor and gore…But for now, it’s a pretty fun piece to demonstration how new technologies are making immersive training applications possible with a reduced cost and timeline.

Check out that 3D training demo and let us know what you think. Did it work well for you on your desktop? We’re working on a conversion to a mobile app…

Install issues with eLearningSuite, Presenter 7, and Office 2010

During an upgrade of a few systems here at ICS, we encountered an issue with the installation of the Adobe Presenter product provided with the eLearning Suite software package. The system upgrades included Windows 7 and Microsoft Office 2010. When installing the eLearning Suite (‘eLS’) package, we noticed that Adobe Presenter was missing from the list of applications despite it being a part of the suite.

Our first thought was perhaps an error with the installer, but then reviewing previous eLS installations on our Windows XP machines, we noticed Presenter had indeed been installed. So then suspicions ran to an incompatibility with either Windows 7 and/or the 64bit capabilities of the upgrade workstations.

A web search, however, revealed many successful installations on 64bit Win7 platforms…and further searching revealed the issue was with Office 2010.

Just like Articulate Presenter, Adobe Presenter runs as an add-on to MS Powerpoint. As eLearning Suite 2 was released before Office 10, the installer does not recognize Office/Powerpoint 2010 as a ‘valid’ product…and in trying prevent incompatibilities, the installer simply hides the Presenter product when no valid Powerpoint installations are found.

Fortunately, Adobe has addressed this with a registry (.reg) modification. Download the .zip file found at that page and RENAME the .zip file to .reg after it has successfully downloaded to your system. Double-click that registry file and allow the modification.
(here's an alternate post outlining the manual registration changes needed)

Now try the eLS installation again and you should see Adobe Presenter in the list, allowing a full install.

If you’ve already installed eLS without Presenter, simply run the installer again (unfortunately, selecting the eLearning Suite 2 entry in Windows 7 ‘Programs and Features’ control panel does not offer a ‘modify’ option) and just select Presenter to add that to the other installed applications).

As an alternative method, to ensure the installed Presenter was the latest, one machine here had the standalone version of Presenter 7.0.7 installed as a trial version first…then the .reg file was run, then the eLS installer was run (and Presenter selected) which resulted in the full suite being installed properly, as well as Presenter not only being the latest version, but being associated with the eLS product key.

Note that the most recent standalone Adobe Presenter installer (7.0.7 at the time of this post) does not have this issue and is compatible with PPT 2010. And despite some of the comments on the Adobe page where the .reg file is hosted, none of our machines experienced any issues with this process (but all do run the 32bit version of Windows Office 2010).

Hope that helps others who may run into this issue!

(PS, here’s a nice thread with references to the above Adobe page and a variety of issues, questions, and alternative approaches, including the same issue with the version of Presenter that’s included with an Adobe Acrobat X package)

Thoughts on the Creative Cloud

Last week, Adobe announced their new approach to Creative Suite 6 software licensing, the Creative Cloud, which should be available in early June. This subscription-based ‘digital hub’ will provided the ability to download and install any application in Adobe’s CS6 “Master Collection” and use it offline…as long as you remain subscribed.

While the subscription model isn’t new, the tie in to a ‘cloud’ system is, which has a great aspect – application updates can be faster and more seamless – and a not-so-great aspect – you are tied even more tightly to your internet connection (though you don’t have to be online to use the applications, but surely they will ‘check in’ on occasion and likely complain if they can’t).

The pricing does not seem unreasonable, but that may be a point of perspective and there are several options. Adobe’s Master Collection traditionally retails for about $2600. The Creative Cloud subscription, giving you access to the same suite of tools, generally ranges from $50 to $75 per month, depending on whether you want to go annual or month-to-month. Adobe is also offering a $20/month discount for current licensees of CS 3 through CS 5.5, which is quite a deal for at least the first year.

As a promotional bit, Adobe is including two ‘HTML 5’ tools, Muse and Edge (preview), only through the Creative Cloud subscription (note that Edge will not work on Windows OS earlier than 7). You also get 20gb of online storage space, which isn’t an awful lot when working with digital media…but you’re not limited to that. You can certainly save your work and files on your current workstation or network…consider that 20gb of storage more as a backup service perhaps. Adobe’s ‘Touch Apps’ are also included in the subscription.

Some may like this new model and some may not. For those not so enthused, Adobe says,

“We certainly do not expect everyone to choose Creative Cloud. Customers can still purchase Creative Suite, as they have done in the past…It will become quickly apparent -- via the continued addition of new products, services, and capabilities -- that Creative Cloud is the best long-term choice for customers.” – CNET

We here at ICS Learning Group, being longtime users of Adobe software, will evaluate which model makes the most sense for us. We’d love to read what you think – comment below! But overall, perhaps the most encouraging takeaway from the Creative Cloud/CS6 announcement is Adobe’s continued commitment to Flash alternatives. We love Flash, but we use other tools too, and seeing what the new Dreamweaver can do, along with Muse and Edge, is eagerly anticipated in our quest for developing high-end custom courseware.

eLearning vs mLearning

Terminology for computer-assisted training has gone through several revisions and variations on the terms are still widely varied. Historically, there have been two components to the terminology:


eLearning Terminology Cloud



• Variations on the adjective: computer, web, internet, technology, distributed
• Variations on the subject: training, learning, education, instruction

Combine those two parts together into whatever term you prefer to describe such computer-assisted instructional courseware! However, the most sustained recent trend has been “eLearning” and is one we think is apt and, at least, desirable in brevity.

As mobile devices become more capable, especially as mobile devices like tablets (iPad != all tablets) become more accepted and widely used, the initial challenge was seen as converting existing eLearning applications to work on those mobile devices, resulting in ‘mobile learning’, or “mLearning”.

However, there are substantial differences with those devices, including their connectivity, their size, and how they are used in general. After some false-starts, it is now understood mobile users do not expect to sit through a half-hour lesson on their device…especially as, being mobile, they may not have a reliable internet connection for that long.

So mLearning is starting to diverge from eLearning not only in specific meaning, but in approach and design as well. Mobile devices are packed with features and mLearning offers opportunities to provide offline ‘App’-like content that can access the range hardware, like GPS features and camera options. In sum, mLearning can be considered much more effective in a contextual setting.

For example, students on a field trip could use a guide App to snap pictures of a flower to learn more about it and how such vegetation thrives in the surrounding geographic region.
Whereas an eLearning piece may be better suited for pre-trip introductory and preparatory information, and for post-trip knowledge review and interactive assessments…perhaps even referencing the data the student collected on the trip!

mLearning can certainly be a converted eLearning piece – there’s nothing in these terms that requires specific functionality…but in your training initiatives, consider the advantages of each platform – the workstation vs. the mobile device – and understand how educational material is best suited for the strengths and uses of each platform.

Inquisiq LMS: Mobile Compatibility!

Due to rise in popularity or mobile access and devices, and subsequent requests from our customers, we have made Inquisiq R3 compatible with mobile devices!
This feature has been in the works for some time and is now ready for public release. Just goes to show- you ask, and we listen!

Inquisiq R3 SaaS accounts will be updated to the latest version this Sunday, April 8th - between 12:00 am and 4:00 am EST. The system will be unavailable for approximately 30 minutes during this upgrade process.

New Features for version 2.12.0405 include:

• Added functionality to make Inquisiq R3 mobile compatible. This feature includes the addition of an interface specifically designed for mobile users, as well as enhancements to the Inquisiq R3 SCORM API to support iOS version 4 - current, and Android version 2.1 - current.
• Added the ability to view logs for email notifications and report subscriptions. Additionally, any email notifications that have failed to send can be triggered to be re-sent.

For more complete details please check our support site for the release notes (coming soon).

*Please note that this upgrade will only effect Inquisiq R3 SaaS accounts. If you would like to upgrade your Inquisiq Installed solution (whether you host it or we host it for you), please contact our technical support to make arrangements.

 

Adobe’s “Angry Bird Tax”

A quick note to clear up any potential confusion a recent Adobe announcement regarding Flash Player licensing…

Adobe essentially said two things,
“Premium features will allow game publishers using native C/C++ console game engines to target Flash Player. Premium features is usage of both domain memory and Stage3D GPU hardware acceleration in combination. Domain memory allows cross-compiled C/C++ to run in Flash Player, including non-ActionScript game engines...”

This does not affect developers who:

• create anything for the browser in Flash Player that use “domain memory”
• create anything for the browser in Flash Player that use Stage3D
• create anything using Adobe AIR including the use of Stage3D and domain memory
• create anything for mobile devices using Adobe AIR including the use of Stage3D and domain memory

The only reason to be concerned with this announcement is if, as a developer/company, you create browser-based applications that use domain memory in combination with hardware accelerated Stage3D in Flash Player AND the revenue for the application is $50,000 or higher.

However, many established frameworks which developers may integrate do use both these components of the Flash Player, so be aware of your development requirements and resources. If you have questions on your product development plans, contact Adobe.

Essentially, if your application (i.e. game) is so popular that Adobe takes notice, congratulations! Many folks would like to have that problem… Here at ICS, as we continue to develop Flash-based eLearning applications with Flash, and some of which will use the 3D API, we’re watching the development of this licensing update closely, but it seems unlikely this will be an issue for us or our customers for whom we develop custom training content.